The problem with brownfield
Brownfield carries many definitions and
associated risks with it. It has been defined as
land formerly used by industry that has some
level of contamination, preventing it from being
developed without meeting environmental and
public safety regulatory standards. In the UK,
however, it is simply defined as ‘previously
developed land’. There is currently no universally
agreed definition of brownfield in Europe. The
UK currently has a total of around 76,600
hectares of brownfield land (not including
Wales and Northern Ireland). In 2003, the
Labour government set a target of 60 percent
of all new housing to be located on brownfield
land. So far the government has identified
enough brownfield for 50,000 new homes. Not
all of it is contaminated, but many brownfield
sites in the UK do have light to heavy levels of
contamination, mostly left from industry.
In response to this vital problem, scientists and
engineers throughout the world are researching
ways to restore brownfield land at little economic
or environmental cost.

hectares (estimated by the EEA) and many
others. According to a report released by the
Concerted Action on Brownfield and Economic
Regeneration Network (CABERNET) in Europe:
“Brownfield land will always be with us -- it
is a symptom of the process of urban land
use change, seen as cities evolve to meet the
needs and challenges of a changing society and
economy. There will never be, nor should there
be, no available brownfield land”.

For developing countries such as China,
brownfield land is becoming a growing problem.
Much of its industrial restructuring has left
many abandoned brownfield sites in mostly
urban areas. As industrial expansion continues
in China, more of its land will be transformed
into brownfields in the future. Unless the
transfer to industrialisation in China and other
developing countries is done sustainably, there
will be an even greater need for green, low-cost,
methods to regenerate brownfield land.

Brownfield density (brownfield area as % of total area of country)

There are a variety of mostly expensive hightech methods being explored for remediating
contaminated land, but some of the conventional
ones are ‘dig and dump’, where contaminated
land is moved to a landfill and ‘stabilisation and
solidification’, where cement is dug into the
ground to immobilise contaminants. Stabilisation
and solidification, while much better than the
former, has been found unsustainable in many
cases and prohibitively expensive for communities
who want to regenerate brownfields in their area.
There is also the widely used ‘cap and bury’
method where impermeable barriers are created,
such as slurry walls, in attempt to seal off
contaminants from the rest of the landscape.
The problem with moving soil with contaminants
is that it doesn’t remediate the problem,
but instead moves the source of pollution to a
landfill that may even be located near places
where people live. Another problem with landfills
is that they are subject to the same environmental
processes as the rest of the land. Contaminants,
such as mercury, lead and arsenic placed in
landfills have been known to leach into the
groundwater over time threatening human,
plant and animal health.
The problem of brownfield land is ubiquitous
throughout Europe. According to the National
Land Use Database, other countries throughout
Europe that also have large amounts of brownfield
land include: Germany: 128,000 hectares;
Poland: 800,000 hectares; France: 200,000

United Kingdom
Brownfield Land Profile
Estimated total area of brownfield land:
ENGLAND: